Story of a Scarlet Lady
Title
Story of a Scarlet Lady
Subject
Article
Description
The story of a Dormlake Scarlet Lady and other beagles owned or bred by George W. Watson of Collegiate Beagles of Maryland, USA.
Creator
George W. Watson
Date
1920-1950
Text
Story Of A Scarlet Lady
by George Watson
My first beagle in 1920 was supposedly a pure-bred but I never got a pedigree. She had relatives running at the trials. I bred her to a Fd. Ch. Afton's Uncle Sam dog but she died whelping, so I started all over. The next two beagles, owned by Charlie Evilsizer, I merely trained. One sired by Fd. Ch. Mondamin Meddler was no good. She had a disposition only a mother could love. The other was by Pd. Ch. Sam's Little Nap and I believe out of Foley's Lady Alice. She was good in the field with real type and coloring, and in those days quite valuable as I saw Charlie turn down $100 for her when less than a year old. Quite a price when ten dollars was considered a lot for a rabbit
hound. In 1924 I saved $17.50 which I invested in a beautiful little pup by Ch. McJaggerwood out of Milhorn Place Sham. Then I bought a male from I. E. Stubbs (Leatherwood) out of Ch. Dunderberg Fencer blood. Their first litter was whelped before either was a year old and the pups were beautiful, Miss Take won several firsts in shows and I was quite a proud breeder. Somehow or other Charlie Evilsizer talked me out of Milhorn Place Trixie by trading daughters of Burrfield Benjamin and Superfine's Petesir E. Homely, white and spotted they turned out to be terribly gunshy. They ran a rabbit according to present trial standards, lots of tongue, slow, pottering and generally miserable. The Superfine's Petesir E bitch was bred to an equally miserable son of Fd. Ch. Devold's Jew and brought quite a hound. He would make you sick at your stomach but he could run a rabbit. This physical monstrosity was the most frequent antecedent of one of the greatest producing field trial bitches of a few years back.
No wonder some hounds look so terrible today! It hurts me, but I must confess my part in breeding such a bitch and not shooting her as I should.
In 1927 I purchased Shady Shores Caesar from I. W. Carrel and my dad gave me a sister to Ge Barron as a birthday gift. She became epileptic and Caesar was later sold as some Wheatley bred hounds came along about this time and they really sold me on show hounds. Around 1930 I got a son of Ch. Maple Hill Pal and Maple Hill Memory. I should have finished him easily had I known what I do now.
A little sister to F. G. Klett's None Such Dude was one of the four best hounds I've owned through the years. A type hound by Ch. Parkshear Mechanic out of Ch. Maple Hill Trifle, he was a marvel afield though slow, but won at trials and on the bench. From then on I stuck to the Wheatleys with an outcross through Happyland Artist.
Ch. Kinsman Foxxy and Kinsman Mr. Jack made their contribution to my breeding program in the early thirties. Given any sort of break Kinsman hounds made good rabbit hounds. No one will question their show qualities. Between 1939 to 1945 I kept only two or three hounds, having limited quarters. During my two and a half years in the service the dogs were with friends. So in 1946 I started all over with hounds I greatly admired: The Wheatleys through Tom Hatcher's great champions — Hatchfield's Carletta and Carlotta, also through all the wonderful hounds my old friend Ferd Drumm had owned. I determined to once again breed along these lines.
More by accident than design I got Dormlake Scarlett Lady. I also own Charmac Gay Lad II, and the greatest beagle of my lifetime, Ch. Collegiate Preacher, and his half-sister Ch. Collegiate Little Lady. They have done so well, adding to my collection of show ribbons and trophies, that I have a very satisfying sprinkling of field trial ribbons.
These hounds have the type characteristics that I like best, long clean necks, good eyes with expression, above all good legs and feet. None so straight they knuckle over as some I have seen. I want no hint of basset or dachshund legs for as Hugh Hopper put it, "A basset is right when he has everything that is wrong in any other dog." Quite a few field trial beagles fill all the structural qualifications of a basset. The Lord forbid spending my hard earned money for something that turns my stomach. A hound does just an awful lot of running with his hind legs so I want good ones, well muscled and with the angulation for drive, speed and endurance. I can't enture a slow, pottering hound. I agree wholeheartedly with Dr. Della Croce's recent remarks here.
Possibly because I'm not musically inclined I haven't given much attention to voice quality. All my hounds have fair voices and Ch. Preacher's is excellent. Those who know him like to watch and hear him. My dogs must fill a spot in our family and the eulogy for Dormlake Scarlett Lady tells the entire family's feelings about the hounds. Old Lady is the particular favorite and is rapidly attaining a sort of canine halo. Dogwise nothing will ever take her place. One very hot summer day I stopped at Charlie Evilsizer's Dormlake kennel just to look at the beagles, with no thought I might take one home as I had several satisfactory hounds, enough for a town lot and close neighbors. Charlie had a little 13½ inch bitch to spare. He is a very persuasive salesman and convinced me that she was more desirable than my new .410 repeating shotgun that Charlie needed to replace one burned in a kennel fire. She didn't seem too attractive but was sired by Ferd Drumm's Ch. Culver's Laddie Buck out of Ch. Scarlett of Dormlake. I liked that breeding and Dormlake Scarlett Lady went home with me.
Lady is now eight years old and from a breeder's point of view she is worth many, many shotguns. From 35 puppies, 18 that matured to show age, nine have been shown. Six are champions, another needing three points was retired due to his owner's ill health. Another with five points will surely finish within a year. One 13 inch and three 15 inch males finished—probably a record for any dam in one year. Some of her youngsters here now will make life miserable for their competition.
Her six champions are by four sires and the present litter is by still a fifth.
No especially lucky nick made her great. Truthfully I believe she would raise at least one champion as a matter of honor from the worst looking male you could dig up. Besides her own offspring her grandchildren and great grandchildren are now winning points and getting their share of Best of Variety wins.
Her granddaughters seem to carry a tremendous amount of her producing power. Her own record is rather mediocre since she has only two points on the bench although she failed to make second series at the trials only once.
Lady will point and hold a pheasant, will tree squirrels, is an excellent ratter and the finest watch dog I ever owned. She celebrated her eighth birthday today by licking the pants off her 15 inch champion son. He handles all the boys around but Mama can still chastize him. She has always been kennel boss and according to present indications will be for some time to come.
I don't know whether Charlie had anything particular in mind when he bred Ch. Scarlett of Dormlake to Ch. Charmac Laddie Buck except, that everyone was currently crazy about
Gay Lad blood and both carried quite a lot of it. Strangely Scarlett's sire was Shady Shores Spotter and all of Lady's champion sons have very closely resembled him regardless of what sire they were by. The same cleanness seems to carry right on to her grandsons. Besides being show hounds I've yet to see a Lady pup that wasn't a natural rabbit hound.
My own Ch. Collegiate Preacher had to have the wood ticks pulled off and the briar scratches healed up before his first show where his first time in competition he won the hound group over some of the outstanding group and best in show dogs of all breeds in the east. You know, show hounds will run rabbits if given the chance.
If this is published it won't be read by the one (and she is quite a one to all of our family) about whom it is written. If ever a dog honored a man by allowing him to be her master then Dormlake Scarlett Lady has so honored me. I've had beagles since I was a little boy of eleven and many of them have been pretty wonderful, but as a pal, hunting companion and all-around member of the family in good standing I will never have another dog that can equal the all-around worth of The Lady. If she had never raised a single pup I would have loved her.
Her name will appear down through the years in the pedigrees of the very finest to remind those who care of one of the greatest beagles that ever lived.
I had nothing to do with planning the mating from which she came. I only acquired her through stopping to see an old friend. Seven years of pleasure and the respect that is held for my Collegiate Beagles by many who have seen them at the shows all stem from that lucky visit made primarily "just to look the hounds over."
Left
Dormlake Scarlett Lady, dam of six show Champions. Upper right— her 13 inch son, Ch. Bob Culton's Little Wrinkles, by Int. Ch.
Thornridge Wrinkles owned by Bob Culton, Baltimore.
Center right — Ch. Collegiate Choir Boy, litter brother to
Ch. Collegiate Preacher, sons of Ch. Lakeside Craig.
14¾" Fee $25
CH. COLLEGIATE PREACHER
A group winning show champion with a consistent field trial record. The best son of the great dual winning Dormlake Scarlet Lady, the dam of 6 champions. Preacher's sire is Ch. Lakeside Craig.
Ch. Preacher carries the very best of the old Shady Shores blood through the immortal Spotter and the great Fd. Ch. Shady Shores Suzy, plus Ch. Shady Shores Sagacious.
Bring your good ones, be our guest and see a REAL CHAMPION in action. Remember:
"COLLEGIATE"
"THE GREATEST NAME IN SHOW BEAGLES" —
and they hunt too.
GEORGE W. WATSON — Phone NOrthfield 5-8018
3113 DuBoise Avenue
Baltimore 14, Maryland
11¾" Fee $15
FD. CH. KARRSVILLE PEPPER
By Fd. Ch. Karrsville Shorty and Shady Shores Shali. Pepper is what I call a check hound, which is his specialty. I will not give you a lot of baloney about him. Just ask anyne whoever saw him run. I have had several champions but Pepper is the best balanced of them all.
WANT TO FINISH A CHAMPION?
SKED'S DANNY BOY, solid black blanket, 12¼", good looking, will finish, 5 years old. Campaigned very little, one 1st place, several other places. Trial here. Price $200.
SKED'S BEAGLES — LeROY SKED
Pennington, New Jersey
Phone 7-0145-J
ANOTHER PAIR OUT OF DORMLAKE SCARLETT LADY
Top — Ch. Collegiate Preacher, sired by Ch. Lakeside Craig. Bottom — Ch. Collegiate Little Lady, by Culver's Duffy McDuff.
by George Watson
My first beagle in 1920 was supposedly a pure-bred but I never got a pedigree. She had relatives running at the trials. I bred her to a Fd. Ch. Afton's Uncle Sam dog but she died whelping, so I started all over. The next two beagles, owned by Charlie Evilsizer, I merely trained. One sired by Fd. Ch. Mondamin Meddler was no good. She had a disposition only a mother could love. The other was by Pd. Ch. Sam's Little Nap and I believe out of Foley's Lady Alice. She was good in the field with real type and coloring, and in those days quite valuable as I saw Charlie turn down $100 for her when less than a year old. Quite a price when ten dollars was considered a lot for a rabbit
hound. In 1924 I saved $17.50 which I invested in a beautiful little pup by Ch. McJaggerwood out of Milhorn Place Sham. Then I bought a male from I. E. Stubbs (Leatherwood) out of Ch. Dunderberg Fencer blood. Their first litter was whelped before either was a year old and the pups were beautiful, Miss Take won several firsts in shows and I was quite a proud breeder. Somehow or other Charlie Evilsizer talked me out of Milhorn Place Trixie by trading daughters of Burrfield Benjamin and Superfine's Petesir E. Homely, white and spotted they turned out to be terribly gunshy. They ran a rabbit according to present trial standards, lots of tongue, slow, pottering and generally miserable. The Superfine's Petesir E bitch was bred to an equally miserable son of Fd. Ch. Devold's Jew and brought quite a hound. He would make you sick at your stomach but he could run a rabbit. This physical monstrosity was the most frequent antecedent of one of the greatest producing field trial bitches of a few years back.
No wonder some hounds look so terrible today! It hurts me, but I must confess my part in breeding such a bitch and not shooting her as I should.
In 1927 I purchased Shady Shores Caesar from I. W. Carrel and my dad gave me a sister to Ge Barron as a birthday gift. She became epileptic and Caesar was later sold as some Wheatley bred hounds came along about this time and they really sold me on show hounds. Around 1930 I got a son of Ch. Maple Hill Pal and Maple Hill Memory. I should have finished him easily had I known what I do now.
A little sister to F. G. Klett's None Such Dude was one of the four best hounds I've owned through the years. A type hound by Ch. Parkshear Mechanic out of Ch. Maple Hill Trifle, he was a marvel afield though slow, but won at trials and on the bench. From then on I stuck to the Wheatleys with an outcross through Happyland Artist.
Ch. Kinsman Foxxy and Kinsman Mr. Jack made their contribution to my breeding program in the early thirties. Given any sort of break Kinsman hounds made good rabbit hounds. No one will question their show qualities. Between 1939 to 1945 I kept only two or three hounds, having limited quarters. During my two and a half years in the service the dogs were with friends. So in 1946 I started all over with hounds I greatly admired: The Wheatleys through Tom Hatcher's great champions — Hatchfield's Carletta and Carlotta, also through all the wonderful hounds my old friend Ferd Drumm had owned. I determined to once again breed along these lines.
More by accident than design I got Dormlake Scarlett Lady. I also own Charmac Gay Lad II, and the greatest beagle of my lifetime, Ch. Collegiate Preacher, and his half-sister Ch. Collegiate Little Lady. They have done so well, adding to my collection of show ribbons and trophies, that I have a very satisfying sprinkling of field trial ribbons.
These hounds have the type characteristics that I like best, long clean necks, good eyes with expression, above all good legs and feet. None so straight they knuckle over as some I have seen. I want no hint of basset or dachshund legs for as Hugh Hopper put it, "A basset is right when he has everything that is wrong in any other dog." Quite a few field trial beagles fill all the structural qualifications of a basset. The Lord forbid spending my hard earned money for something that turns my stomach. A hound does just an awful lot of running with his hind legs so I want good ones, well muscled and with the angulation for drive, speed and endurance. I can't enture a slow, pottering hound. I agree wholeheartedly with Dr. Della Croce's recent remarks here.
Possibly because I'm not musically inclined I haven't given much attention to voice quality. All my hounds have fair voices and Ch. Preacher's is excellent. Those who know him like to watch and hear him. My dogs must fill a spot in our family and the eulogy for Dormlake Scarlett Lady tells the entire family's feelings about the hounds. Old Lady is the particular favorite and is rapidly attaining a sort of canine halo. Dogwise nothing will ever take her place. One very hot summer day I stopped at Charlie Evilsizer's Dormlake kennel just to look at the beagles, with no thought I might take one home as I had several satisfactory hounds, enough for a town lot and close neighbors. Charlie had a little 13½ inch bitch to spare. He is a very persuasive salesman and convinced me that she was more desirable than my new .410 repeating shotgun that Charlie needed to replace one burned in a kennel fire. She didn't seem too attractive but was sired by Ferd Drumm's Ch. Culver's Laddie Buck out of Ch. Scarlett of Dormlake. I liked that breeding and Dormlake Scarlett Lady went home with me.
Lady is now eight years old and from a breeder's point of view she is worth many, many shotguns. From 35 puppies, 18 that matured to show age, nine have been shown. Six are champions, another needing three points was retired due to his owner's ill health. Another with five points will surely finish within a year. One 13 inch and three 15 inch males finished—probably a record for any dam in one year. Some of her youngsters here now will make life miserable for their competition.
Her six champions are by four sires and the present litter is by still a fifth.
No especially lucky nick made her great. Truthfully I believe she would raise at least one champion as a matter of honor from the worst looking male you could dig up. Besides her own offspring her grandchildren and great grandchildren are now winning points and getting their share of Best of Variety wins.
Her granddaughters seem to carry a tremendous amount of her producing power. Her own record is rather mediocre since she has only two points on the bench although she failed to make second series at the trials only once.
Lady will point and hold a pheasant, will tree squirrels, is an excellent ratter and the finest watch dog I ever owned. She celebrated her eighth birthday today by licking the pants off her 15 inch champion son. He handles all the boys around but Mama can still chastize him. She has always been kennel boss and according to present indications will be for some time to come.
I don't know whether Charlie had anything particular in mind when he bred Ch. Scarlett of Dormlake to Ch. Charmac Laddie Buck except, that everyone was currently crazy about
Gay Lad blood and both carried quite a lot of it. Strangely Scarlett's sire was Shady Shores Spotter and all of Lady's champion sons have very closely resembled him regardless of what sire they were by. The same cleanness seems to carry right on to her grandsons. Besides being show hounds I've yet to see a Lady pup that wasn't a natural rabbit hound.
My own Ch. Collegiate Preacher had to have the wood ticks pulled off and the briar scratches healed up before his first show where his first time in competition he won the hound group over some of the outstanding group and best in show dogs of all breeds in the east. You know, show hounds will run rabbits if given the chance.
If this is published it won't be read by the one (and she is quite a one to all of our family) about whom it is written. If ever a dog honored a man by allowing him to be her master then Dormlake Scarlett Lady has so honored me. I've had beagles since I was a little boy of eleven and many of them have been pretty wonderful, but as a pal, hunting companion and all-around member of the family in good standing I will never have another dog that can equal the all-around worth of The Lady. If she had never raised a single pup I would have loved her.
Her name will appear down through the years in the pedigrees of the very finest to remind those who care of one of the greatest beagles that ever lived.
I had nothing to do with planning the mating from which she came. I only acquired her through stopping to see an old friend. Seven years of pleasure and the respect that is held for my Collegiate Beagles by many who have seen them at the shows all stem from that lucky visit made primarily "just to look the hounds over."
Left
Dormlake Scarlett Lady, dam of six show Champions. Upper right— her 13 inch son, Ch. Bob Culton's Little Wrinkles, by Int. Ch.
Thornridge Wrinkles owned by Bob Culton, Baltimore.
Center right — Ch. Collegiate Choir Boy, litter brother to
Ch. Collegiate Preacher, sons of Ch. Lakeside Craig.
14¾" Fee $25
CH. COLLEGIATE PREACHER
A group winning show champion with a consistent field trial record. The best son of the great dual winning Dormlake Scarlet Lady, the dam of 6 champions. Preacher's sire is Ch. Lakeside Craig.
Ch. Preacher carries the very best of the old Shady Shores blood through the immortal Spotter and the great Fd. Ch. Shady Shores Suzy, plus Ch. Shady Shores Sagacious.
Bring your good ones, be our guest and see a REAL CHAMPION in action. Remember:
"COLLEGIATE"
"THE GREATEST NAME IN SHOW BEAGLES" —
and they hunt too.
GEORGE W. WATSON — Phone NOrthfield 5-8018
3113 DuBoise Avenue
Baltimore 14, Maryland
11¾" Fee $15
FD. CH. KARRSVILLE PEPPER
By Fd. Ch. Karrsville Shorty and Shady Shores Shali. Pepper is what I call a check hound, which is his specialty. I will not give you a lot of baloney about him. Just ask anyne whoever saw him run. I have had several champions but Pepper is the best balanced of them all.
WANT TO FINISH A CHAMPION?
SKED'S DANNY BOY, solid black blanket, 12¼", good looking, will finish, 5 years old. Campaigned very little, one 1st place, several other places. Trial here. Price $200.
SKED'S BEAGLES — LeROY SKED
Pennington, New Jersey
Phone 7-0145-J
ANOTHER PAIR OUT OF DORMLAKE SCARLETT LADY
Top — Ch. Collegiate Preacher, sired by Ch. Lakeside Craig. Bottom — Ch. Collegiate Little Lady, by Culver's Duffy McDuff.
Collection
Citation
Toke Larsen, “Story of a Scarlet Lady,” The Beagle History Resource, accessed May 16, 2024, http://beaglehistory.org/repository/items/show/67.
Added by Toke Larsen